This invention relates to games, particularly to cryptographic puzzles and games in which one or more players decipher a ciphertext puzzle in a series of guesses.
Cryptogram puzzles as found in some periodicals are well known in the prior art. In these puzzles, quotations or other combinations of words which have been selected for their solvability, have each been enciphered with a transient simple substitution cipher. Every letter (plain character) has been consistently replaced by a cipher character, which is a symbol that represents or substitutes for the same letter wherever it occurs. The procedure for solving these puzzles involves searching the unintelligible ciphertext puzzle for clues such as word lengths, symbol occurrence counts, pattern words and multi-word repeating-character patterns, etc., to form one or more educated guesses about what plain characters the cipher characters might represent. Filling in these trial characters across the puzzle's trial solution area wherever the corresponding cipher character appears eventually produces either sensible word fragments and more clues, or letter combinations that obviously are not part of any word in the language. The latter indicates one or more trial characters are incorrect. Typically, several guesses must be filled in before any reliable judgement regarding the correctness of some of these guesses can be made, and certainty regarding early guesses lags behind still more guesses. Solving cryptogram puzzles therefore requires frequent erasures or writeovers of the trial solution area. Also, there is no guarantee the solution will ever be found.
While cryptograms are very popular, many people find them too difficult, including a significant number of fans of other kinds of word puzzles. Many potential cryptogram puzzle solvers either don't know where to begin, or they become frustrated when they get stuck. They are stuck when the available clues they know how to recognize fail to produce a correct guess within reasonable time and effort. It is customary in the prior art for the puzzle composer to supply a hint to help the solver get started. Such a hint typically reveals the plain character represented by one cipher character. Sometimes, rarely, one or two additional hints are provided. Also, sometimes hints are provided with the intent that they be used only if and when required, for example, when the puzzle solver notices he or she is stuck.
Such hints as are common in the prior art simply give away a portion of the solution. For every hint used, a proportionate amount of the challenge (and therefore sense of accomplishment) is taken away. Once the hints have been used, the puzzle solver is back to the trial and error method of solving using the trial solution area. The presence of such hints does not prevent the puzzle solver from becoming stuck. A puzzle solver can become stuck in spite of the hints the puzzle composer chose to provide. This can happen at the beginning or any time during the process of solving the puzzle. Neither do such hints help the solver recognize when he or she is off track.
Several cryptographic games and apparatuses which involve the encoding or decoding of words are known in the art. In particular, U.S. Pat. No. 3,117,789 to Wiebe discloses a decoding game apparatus for two to four players. This game is played by each player solving a personal copy of a ciphertext puzzle by trial and error, using playing pieces bearing characters, instead of a writing utensil. Provided with each puzzle are three or so hidden hints or clues, one of which can be exposed whenever the players are stuck. Wiebe provides no method of selecting one hint over another according to its potential helpfulness or other characteristics. Scoring is accomplished by giving credit to the player who first correctly decodes a word, group of words, or the entire puzzle, with the possibility of penalties for mistakes.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,891,218 to Hilgartner et al discloses a crossword-type game named Zarton in which two players (or teams) use character-bearing playing pieces to form coded words in crossword fashion, and attempt to break each other's codes. The Zarton game has no trial solution area capable of receiving trial characters; instead, according to the rules of play taught by the patent, code breaking is accomplished by interrogation: A player asks whether a specific cipher character represents a particular plain character and waits for a reply. The same player may continue interrogating until he or she is wrong. If the player is able, he or she must then add a coded word to the crossword display. At the beginning of the game, each player reveals one plain character of his or her first coded word. This step is equivalent to the players giving each other one hint.
The Cryptographic Game Apparatus and Mode of Play of U.S. Pat. No. 4,509,758 to Cole discloses an apparatus for creating a random cipher and a method of play which includes one player using the apparatus to encipher a message. After the message is enciphered, a number of other players each make a personal copy of the newly-created ciphertext puzzle and have a limited time to decipher it. The players take turns audibly guessing at the cipher, to which guesses the first player responds with a "yes" or "no" answer.
The symbol puzzle disclosed by Riviera in U.S. Pat. No. 4,687,201 is basically a crossword puzzle provided with some spaces already containing characters and the remaining spaces containing fragments of characters. Every such character or fragment of a character is ambiguous in that it could represent either of two potential solution characters: Those that already are a character can be selectively left alone or by adding lines can be converted into at least one different character; and those that are a fragment of a character can be selectively converted into any one of at least two characters by adding lines. Although not a cipher, groups of these symbols have some characteristics of a cipher in that they hide the solution by making the puzzle look like ciphertext.
As can be seen from these inventions and the prevalence of cryptograms in some periodicals, cryptograms are a popular type of word puzzle. However, whatever the precise advantages, benefits, features, or attributes the above mentioned puzzles and games may have, none of them achieves or fulfills the purposes of the present invention as defined by the following objectives, disclosure, and claims.